Happy Holidays!

Hope everyone has a safe and happy one, whatever you celebrate!!

fancypants.

So it's my brother's longtime girlfriend Danielle's birthday party tonight, and I decided I had to make something. She is a total fashion queen and the best shopper you have ever seen (seriously, she makes an art out of it..I can't keep up when I tag along). I felt that Chanel cupcakes would be appropriate.



I did chocolate cupcakes FILLED (oh yes) with chocolate cheesecake, and topped with vanilla buttercream, and a little fondant logo! They are pretty decadent and I think I will advise people to possibly share!

dallas cowboys themed cake!

Football cake! I was asked by my friend Kristen to construct a Dallas Cowboys themed cake for her son Noah's 2nd birthday! There haven't been a lot of birthdays lately so I was totally up for it!

I was inspired by a pic I found online, most of the cakes were too themed, I wanted to keep it simple, yet still friendly towards small children.

And I actually got it done, ahead of schedule! I rolled out the fondant pretty thin, so it sort of wrinkled up in a few places (I'm still an amateur!), but other than that minor detail, the rest went really smoothly, and I really enjoyed making this cake!


mini cake for the little kids


Birthday Boy picking up his cake with Mom!

Baker's Market! Saturday December 12th!

I'm in the Baker's Market again! December 12th! Can't wait! Ordered some cute cupcake holders, done up some more labels, got my plan in action! Now all I need to do is bake and decorate. Pleased. Come visit me!!! There are going to be a TON of vendors! I am really looking forward to it!

In other news, I cannot believe it is the END of NOVEMBER? EW! Why did Fall go by SO FAST?

cheesecakery!

Yesterday Amanda and I got ambitious and decided to crank out 3 types of cheesecake! We started at 4 pm and I didn't leave until midnight! Three types of cheesecake was enough to drive us into insanity. I had never attempted to bake these before, they seemed tricky annnnd I figured they required a much higher baking skill than I currently possess. I don't know why I thought this, they were actually not as hard as I thought, although the different pans, types of crust, ingredients to add to different flavors, proved to be a little hectic.



We did a pumpkin cheesecake, Bailey's Irish Cream cheesecake, and a 2 layer chocolate one.

Also, we found the most brilliant little pan for individual cheesecakes at Cobblestone Cottage in Ladner, it made 12 individual personal sized cheesecakes and had little pop-out bottoms to get them out! So cute, but such a BITCH to clean!!



The Bailey's Irish Cream cheesecake didn't turn out as we hoped, it is still good, but there is only a hint of flavor, which is funny considering I poured half a bottle of Bailey's and a shot of Whiskey in for good measure.

Still, it was really awesome to learn how to make cheesecake and I'm sure I'll be putting my darling Kitchenaid to the test in the future, now that I feel capable!
My family will be taste testing them all tonight for dessert, as it was my Mom's birthday yesterday and tonight we are doing dinner!!

I'm going to try and get to the Baker's Martket next weekend for a visit and a few purchases if I can, I miss my Sunday cake school crew so I am hoping a few of them will be there!

i <3 halloween

vidjea game makers!

So this is fully non-related to food/baking posting, but it's a big thing in my life! Billy graduated yesterday from the game design program at vancouver film school! He managed to graduate with honors at the top of his class, and NEVER missed a single day of classes, despite having a close to 2 hour commute every day! That's how he rolls, he is serious and actually can't give any less than 200%, it's almost ridiculous. But I'm not gonna complain, because it's a quality that I WISH I had!!
I have to say that it was sincerely a pleasure to get to know the guys(and girl! hi Courtney!) in this class, and I think they will remain in our lives, even the ones that have to leave, thanks to facebook and stuff like that! So yay for technology.
Anyways, Im super proud of them all, and how great of a photo is this? We went out to celebrate last night and I am feeling a little rough today..ehhh. Two Double ceasars + 2 jaeger shots + 2 pints of beer = I hug EVERYBODY (eh, I'm a really happy drunk girl,and people generally are ok with the hugging) and a severe hangover.

Moving on, Sunday is my last day of cake school! boo!! (I love calling it cake school for some reason, I will miss that!) I'm bummed, because it has been really great learning all of the (sometimes frustrating) techniques, and sitting and chatting with the girls and guy in class. BUT I am going to like having my Sundays back again.

Tomorrow we (us and a bunch of guys from vfs) are going to Bellingham to consume some delicious Mexican fare and take a peek around the always epic, Bellingham walmart. Very reminiscent of this

Should be lovely.

who wants a 1986 grandma cake?

SO last class we learned BASKETWEAVE icing techniques. Uh....ok. Not my favorite.

My cake looks pretty rough. The icing was stale and totally overused by the time I got it done.
thanks to amanda for the pic of this hideous creation!

Next class I have to bring a huge batch of royal icing, so I am anticipating fun things, hopefully not daisies though. Damn you daisies!!!! *shakes fist*

Billy graduates NEXT WEEK. I feel like this year has flown by,...it's so bizarre. I am attending his graduation ceremony/reception thing at VFS on Thursday, Im sure there will be some entertaining things to happen.

well hello there,

well...what do we have here?..

Meet my new best friend... I just got him out of the box and he helped me make these:

and I love him so. His delightful pumpkin coloring, his shiny metal bowl, his EASY to clean-ness.
I hope to keep him around for many years! <3

first EVER bakers market!

So my venture into 'cupcakery' went pretty well! The baker's market was really cute and it was cool to talk to the other vendors and meet them (AND try their stuff!! mm).


I made just over 80 cupcakes, took me about 8 hours start to finish, hand decorating each one nearly killed me. BUT I did it. The only problem? I should have made WAY MORE.


Yes, I SOLD OUT awkwardly early into the day, but hey, learning curve right?

It was my first time so, meh. I was really surprised they went so fast, and really happy about it, I was totally all "Debbie Downer" thinking that I would have to lug like, 60 cupcakes home with me, because who would want to buy cupcakes from some random girl with cute cake boxes? Turns out, people like my cupcakes, like my cute cake boxes and really liked my logo! Yay!



My table partner/cake school acquaintance/new facebook friend Maureen did really well too, she also sold out! I did a trade and swapped one of mine for one of her red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting..OMG.


I received visits from Dean, Katherine and Lars, whom all made a purchase too! Thanks guys, i heart u.

www.weddingthings.com was the host of the bakers market, it's owned by Connie.
Connie hooks you UP. For real. AMAZING stuff. Im obsessed with stationary and cards, I almost passed out at the amazing little cards and favors. Kinda made me want to get married again.
(To the same guy of course..ha)

some more pics!

Baking like whoa.

getting ready for this!

Cake School!

This is one of my cakes! I enrolled in cake decorating classes on a whim one day in the summer, and I had my first class last week. It was great, The class is full of people in their 20's and 30's, so no grandmas wanting to make those ugly doll cakes I have nightmares about, you know the kind

Anyways, We have only just started. but we ended the class last week with learning how to construct a rose. HARD.... RIDICULOUSLY HARD. I failed at this, but I know it will take a long time to master it. A girl in my class is holding a bakers market next month, Im considering maybe renting a table, but I'd like to split it with somebody! So Im looking!

Also...HUGE NEWS......I just ordered a kitchen aid mixer!!!! (GIRLISH SHRIEK!!!!!)
I wanted a red one ideally, but I found a display model on amazon.com and it is orange! So cute! I heart!!! It was a STEAL. They cost about $499 plus taxes and shipping on the kitchen aid site, and I got this one for $223.00 and that includes shipping to Point Roberts. I guess I better tell Billy's mom that it will be showing up sometime next week at her door! SO EXCITING. I have wanted one of these FOR-EVERRRR, and have been pricing them out since August, so needless to say I am doing a happy dance when I think about it's loveliness gracing my kitchen.

I will try and update more as I go through the course, it's early on, so not much to tell.
I have to bring in an 8" iced cake and 8 cupcakes to class on Sunday, as well as 3 containers of different consistency buttercream icings AND my class tool kit. Did I mention that I take a bus, skytrain and have to walk 3 blocks to my class? Yeah. Going to be a challenge for sure.

In other news, not much has been going on, Billy is almost done school, which is crazy to me. I like the friends he has made at school and I hope they continue to stay in contact if they all end up leaving Vancouver, I think he is part of a really good class.

We have gotten hooked on Mad Men as of lately, such a good show. We spent a few sundays watching back to back eposides and catching up. I also learned that my mom watches the show religiously, had no idea. I love the clothes and the furniture. We are going to be characters from it for Halloween, Im going to be Joan and Billy is going to be Roger Sterling

Im looking around for a red wig. Not dying my hair :P

I loooooove halloween and I love fall in general! So excited! Hope we find a fun event this year.

PacMan Cookies!

An oldy, but a project that I am still so proud of! I hand-formed my own seashell cookie cutter into a pacman ghost for these ones!

I'm feeling a baking project coming on, and Lars's birthday party just happens to be around the corner....I'm playing with fondant now! Should be interesting! *hope I don't crash and burn with this one!!! now that I have announced it via le internets!!*

WOW...uh...I'm a bit late. AWKWARRRRD...

So I lied to you all when I said "COMING SOON". Bet you didn't think SOON was equivalent to OVER A MONTH. Sorry. I have no good excuse, only the fact that it is still summer, and I have either been:

a.) Out, doin stuff
or
b.) playing too much bejewelled.

ANYWAYS.

"Irish Carbomb" aka Bailey's and Guiness CUPCAKES!!
These were so fun, we went to a beer themed birthday party (the host brews his own and it was just overall fantastic, his hefewiezen (sp.?) was something you'd stab somebody for, it was THAT GOOD.



I basically adapted this recipe here but omitted the whiskey and changed it up a little by actually adding a can of guinness to the cupcake batter itself instead of the traditional wet ingredients.

The frosting I followed to a tee. I didnt use the chocolate ganache filling because I thought they would be sweet enough on their own. Yes.




Ahh. All done. If I had more time I would have searched for my decorating bag and star tip to frost them all pretty-like, but I was un-organized (gasp!) and therefore had to resort to using a knife and doing it up old school.

I didnt write the recipe out because I linked to it if you so desire to make these :)

coming soon...

irish car bomb (chocolate/guinness and bailey's) cupcakes.

it's been way too hot to even think about turning my stove/oven on! But there is a birthday on Saturday and I have been WAITING for an excuse to make these. Hope they work out :)

what i have been doing (hint: it's not cooking)

...painting telephone poles!

These photos make me think I have hung them too high, but in real life they are pretty low. Im going to have to do some checking here.
Yeah, we have been doing a LOT of bbq-ing, thus my blog has been quiet, I figure nobody needs to see the 18th bloated veggie dog I have eaten this month. It's not impressive looking.

Amanda and I went to the vancouver flea market and looked around. One man proceeded to show us every single item he was selling, and said nothing other than this one phrase: "And look at this......and look at this......and look at this".Im not sure if it was the only english he knew, but we made an extremely awkward exit. Then it was off to Ikea, and then to Micheal's...we were feeling ambitious. All of this took place before noon. I didn't find anything at the flea market this time, Amanda bought some prints from a dark graphic novel to frame and hang, and then we found 5$ black frames at Micheals. It was a steal. I bought canvases and came home and starting cranking out these babies. Dean had suggested that I do some big ones, and connect the wires. Good plan my friend, I'm going to do more someday.

lemon bars

i am a baker by heart, cooking is just a front. I thrive when I'm making sugar-y stuff...even when I am staying away from eating it, like now.
Lemon bars are a surprising thing for me, seeing as I spent a good 25 years hating lemon-based desserts. I initially wanted to make these for Billy, he likes that kind of stuff, and they looked easy.


Then I tried one, and I was sold. Lemons are now off the hit list, leaving only pancakes, mushrooms and bananas as things I truly loathe! Do I sound neurotic? meh. These smelled so good that I swore I could hear my neighbors lingering in the hall by my door because anything that makes the hallway smell better than it's usual aroma of "hamburger helper" is like heaven.

These are really easy, even though they are a two-step process, I usually try and stay away from things like that..but this one is so simple, you should definitely make them....

lemon bars

Crust:
1 and 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
1/4 cup of icing sugar
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1/2 cup of butter, cut into small pieces and chilled in the fridge

Making the crust:
Preheat your oven to 350 F, line a square pan with tinfoil (I used an 8x8 glass baking dish)
and leave some foil hanging over the edges so you can remove the bars easily. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, salt and sugar and mix them up well. Scatted the pieces of cutter over the dry mixture and use either a pastry cutter or something like that to work the butter in (I don't have a pastry cutter so I used a gigantic fork) until it resembles coarse crumbs. Press the crumbly mixture into the foil lined pan, make sure it's evenly pressed in, don't make the corners higher etc. Bake the crust for about 15-20 minutes or until you see it turning golden brown..don't worry about cracks, they are no big deal with these. Your kitchen should smell like shortbread-y goodness by now...lock your doors.

lemon part:
4 large eggs
1 and 1/4 cups of regular sugar ("granulated" if you are fancy pants)
2 tablespoons of lemon zest (grated from 2 whole lemons)
1/2 cup of lemon juice (again, from the 2 whole lemons)
1/4 cup of all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon of salt
icing sugar for dusting on top

making the lemon part:
wash and re-use your medium sized bowl from making the crust, less clean up = happy.
In that bowl, rub the lemon zest into the sugar with either your fingers or a big wooden spoon, I used the spoon because I'm weird about hands + mixing things. The sugar will turn a lovely shade of pale yellow. Beat in the eggs, then the lemon juice, sift the flour and salt over the surface and mix them in. Pour the topping over the baked crust (it's ok if the crust is still hot from the oven) and continue baking for 25 or so minutes, or until you see the top is set and not sloshing around. Pull it out and cool. Dust with the icing sugar before slicing!

chili-lime chicken

This chicken is unreal. I love the flavor of sweet chili mixed with lime...next time I make this, I am going to use a whole chicken (minus the terror this time) and even try barbecuing with this combination. I think that this chicken will become a staple for me, it was easy as hell, and super super good. I'm sure I will discover many chicken recipes as I go, that is because I don't eat red meat or pork, and I'm only a turkey fan when it's done for occasions like Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc. Things like "Turkey Tacos" etc..never do it for me because ground turkey is always disappointing and dry. Anyways, back to the chili-lime chicken...

chili-lime chicken

I used 2 large chicken breasts (next time: whole thing! for sure)
1 lime
1 tablespoon of butter (recipe called for room temperature)
1/2 tsp of both salt and pepper
1/4 tsp of hot chili flakes (If you are like me and couldn't find these, use some chili seasoning and a dash of sweet chili sauce, found in the Asian foods section of a grocery store)


Pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees F.
Grate the peel from your lime into a bowl (use the whole lime) this made my apartment smell like a frat house doing tequila shots!
Stir in the butter, and add your chili 'situation'. Whisk that into a rub/sauce.
Place the chicken in a baking dish (I used a glass pie dish)
Pour the sauce/rub all over to coat the chicken, cut your lime into thick slices and toss them on top of the chicken, and put that guy in the oven, I covered mine in foil for the first 20 minutes, then removed the foil for the last 10-15 minutes, I just kept basting it and checking it with my meat thermometer until it was done. I served it on a BED of orzo. Haha..."bed"...I'm fancy.



This summer I vow to be obsessed with all things lime.

Buffalo Chicken Pizza

On friday I went downtown and shopped around with Dean and Harry. We went for lunch and they split a buffalo chicken pizza, and I haven't been able to get the image of that thing out of my head. Looked so good, I should have ordered the same thing, but I decided to make it instead!

I am sort of combining two recipes found online together, and modifying it a bit and making it my own...it's going to be okay though so calm down..I feel like I might know what the hell I'm doing by now. (HA). I am using pre-made dough though (Jamie Oliver makes it look so easy to make dough, yet I am still hesitant.) Im a pansy. Whatever.


Buffalo Chicken Pizza (aka HOT hottness in pizza form)

2 large chicken breasts (cut into pieces deemed appropriate for pizza eating)
Frank's Red Hot original sauce (or something equally potent)
2 tbsp melted butter
a bunch of grated cheese (I'm using mozzarella and cheddar)
ranch dressing or blue cheese dressing
diced celery (I am currently lacking this ingredient...and might call the husband to pick some up on his way home)

While cleaning my horrendously small kitchen, I let the chicken marinate in the fridge, in frank's red hot sauce for about 30 minutes. Prep time!
Grate the cheese (loudly singing along to ipod hip-hop based playlist is optional)
If you had celery, you would be chopping it up into bite sized pieces at this time.
Prepare the dough if applicable (ie: read directions on can. Nothing gets by you!)

I had a can of pretty basic pizza sauce, which I added a few tablespoons of frank's to, just to spice it up a bit and match the pizza. You could do a pizza sauce with just frank's and your dressing of choice, but I didn't feel like going that route. My weak Canadian taste buds might expolde from the heat. I coated the baked pizza dough in the sauce and layered it with the cooked chicken and cheese mixture. Slide that sucka in the oven at 400 degrees and I just watch it until it bubbles.
When it is done, drizzle some of the frank's and the ranch/or blue cheese on top. So good...would have been way better with celery, but ah well.




Deliciousness.

Let's talk about Pancakes

AND WHY I HATE THEM...Pancakes are such garbage. They LOOK good, but it's all a TRICK ..... You eat one, and it's like "Yeah OK, that was alright, a big, dry cake-y thing saturated in syrup.....ahhh...I guess I'll go for another"...and then it just spirals out of control, and before you know it, you are lying in a pool of syrup, and Aunt Jemima is jamming the syringe to your arm like a junkie in an alley, sweat, beading off of her kerchief...!!!

Ok so I went a little off the wall there,(Im almost seriously considering writing a novel about Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben being shifty big-city types) but seriously, Pancakes always seem like a good idea, but what the hell do they do in your stomach? Triple in size? I could eat 2 of those things and almost immediately, I feel like absolute crap, it's like a pancake hangover. Everybody I know says the same thing! Pancakes are trickery!! Nobody feels good after pancakes. It's a proven scientific fact. (If I was a scientist and proved stuff). If Im out for breakfast and I overhear some idiot ordering a giant stack of pancakes, I almost want to scream out "YOU IDIOT....WHAT ABOUT WAFFLES..OR FRENCH TOAST??? UGH...YOU A WASTE OF SKIN!". Yes, I am passionate about my pancake hating, and may infact, suffer from PANCAKE INDUCED RAGE. (CAPS LOCK MAKES IT ANGRIER!!!!@#$%) .

Ahh...Ok that was my insane rant of the year. Not bad. Im pretty laid back, except when it comes to pancakes.

Crepes however, are delightful.

I am alive, I swear.

wow, havent updated in foreverrrrr.

I HAVE made a few successful meals, one is on the fence, and that would be the tortilla soup I threw together last night. SOMETHING is missing, but I can't put my finger on it. Maybe it just needed some shredded chicken...or cheese? Do people make soup with cheese?? Anyways, the reason I made soup, was because I discovered that the lovely giant stainless steel rice cooker we got as a wedding gift, also doubles as a slow cooker/crock pot! I love me some 2-in 1's. I didnt take any pics of the soup, as my camera battery was dead (pro tip: don't accidentally leave your camera on for 3 days..oops).
Here's a pic of tortilla soup that I stole care of google image search.
OK well I guess that answers my question about the cheese situation. Crap. Also mine is not RED like that. What in gods name did I do wrong?? ah well. I only have a metric ton of soup to polish off. Great.
Bah. Next time I going to post the fabulous salmon I made. Also Easter is coming up and I will definitely be making cookies. Ahh...safe, safe cookies.

chicken...success!

I ROASTED A CHICKEN.

At first it was scary...like this guy...

And then, after a bit of hesitation, I finally was able to suck it up and get this bad boy going.
I don't really have a recipe, but I used the internet and various calls to my mom as my reference and came up with the following:

wash chicken, look inside it to check for stuff
rub it with butter (creeeepy)
season it with lots of salt, pepper and chicken rub
toss it in a pan (or dish) and cover it loosely with tinfoil and roast it at 350 degrees and 20 minutes per pound. (mine was just over 4lbs and took about just under 2 hours)

No basting, (good because I don't have a turkey baster)
I did tie the legs together with dental floss though because do you think I could find a piece of sting anywhere? no. So I like to think I am the Macgyver of chicken making.

Anyways, long story short...chicken was awesome and super moist (hate that word)



I also made mashed potatoes and I even made gravy with the juices from the chicken.


Notice the lack of any vegetables. This was truly a Lars meal (Lars only eats brown stuff)



thanks to my mom (maker of amazing chicken) for helping me via the telephone!

chicken. scares. me

So I am roasting a chicken currently...(post to come later)

Now, I have not handled many a whole chicken, my mom tried her best to teach me how to cook, but I never was really that interested in it, and then I left home.

.........Roasting chickens feel like naked dead baby-type things. There. I said it. I'm sorry.

I am traumatized. BUT...I managed to get it into a pan with my eyes squeezed shut and little shrieking, and I only dropped it once..(in the sink, people...it's FINE). When I actually started to season it and stuff, the whole "freaking out about the naked baby-ness" thing faded and I am now looking forward to eating him. Plus it's starting to smell really good in here, my husband is going to be surprised :)

So we will see how this all turns out...

valentines day cookies

I really am not great at updating this. I am not a good blogger. Ah well..
I have actually made a few dinners, but I was too busy or too lazy to document it.

However, who dosent love cookies?


I use this old sugar cookie recipe from the 50's. It's classic and surprisingly easy.

Sugar Cookies

1 1/2 cups of flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup butter (I used salted, because un-salted gives me the creeps)
1/2 cup of sugar
1 egg yolk; slightly beaten
3 tablespoons of milk
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla

Mix dry ingredients together. In a bigger bowl, cream butter and add sugar gradually. Add egg yolk to butter and sugar and mix well. Add the dry ingredients alternately with milk, and add vanilla. Get the dough into a ball and throw it in the fridge to chill (I did for about an hour).

Roll out on a floured surface and cut out your shapes! Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet @ 375 degrees F for 8-10 minutes. I watch them carefully though, since every oven is different. Mine happens to burn stuff, so I get them out at closer to 8 mins.

*you get about 25 or so cookies.



There you have it. The icing is just egg whites with icing sugar and cream of tartar. It hardens up nicely. Im gonna sell some of these in little boxes at my parents ice cream and candy shop. If they don't sell, guess all my friends will be getting cookies this weekend :)